Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund

The Revolution Won't Be Televised (D: Rama Thiaw)

The Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund helps enable more African documentary filmmakers to tell stories and contribute to a new generation of the African documentary community. In 2016, the Fund was renewed with an additional $1.25 million CAD, bringing the total investment to $2.35 million.

The Fund provides development grants of up to 10,000 CAD and production grants of up to $40,000 CAD to four to 10 projects annually. Each year, up to five funded projects are also invited to participate in a year-long mentorship program, along with private filmmaker labs at Hot Docs and the Durban FimMart/Durban International Film Festival.

In 2016, the Fund collaborated with The New York Times—Op-Docs to commission shorts from African filmmakers to be showcased on The Times’s Emmy® Award–winning online forum. Five to eight projects will be selected from current and past Fund submissions. These short docs are produced in collaboration with Op-Docs, with grants provided by the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund.

To date, the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund has awarded funding to 48 projects from 19 countries.

How to Apply

Applications are open to professional filmmakers who are citizens and residents of continental Africa and are also living and working in the region.

Recipient Highlights

Whose Country? (D: Mohamed Siam, Egypt) received its world premiere at Hot Docs 2016. The Revolution Won't Be Televised (D: Rama Thiaw, Senegal) has screend at 32 international festivals following its world premiere at Berlinale 2016. View all recipients in our archives.